Enhanced absorption process in the thin active region of GaAs based p–i–n structure

The optical absorption is the most important macroscopic process to characterize the microscopic optical transition in the semiconductor materials. Recently, great enhancement has been observed in the absorption of the active region within a p–n junction. In this paper, GaAs based p–i–n samples with the active region varied from 100 nm to 3 μm were fabricated and it was observed that the external quantum efficiencies are higher than the typical results, indicating a new mechanism beyond the established theories. We proposed a theoretical model about the abnormal optical absorption process in the active region within a strong electric field, which might provide new theories for the design of the solar cells, photodetectors, and other photoelectric devices. (paper)